ANKARA - A lawmaker from Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Tuesday asked parliament to relieve him from his seat in order to face charges of corruption levelled against him.
"I request the initiation of the required procedure for my resignation from my parliamentary seat in order to defend myself before the independent judiciary, prove my innocence and defend myself against unjustified attacks," Cemal Kaya told reporters after handing in his resignation petition.
Under the house rules, a simple majority among the lawmakers present for the vote is enough to relieve Kaya from his seat.
His resignation followed an indictment issued by an Ankara prosecutor last week accusing him, along with 17 other defendants, of corruption in energy tenders.
Kaya is accused of trying to arrange for a number of state tenders to be awarded to a company registered under his wife's name.
He cannot be tried unless his parliamentary immunity is removed.
If Kaya's resignation is approved in parliament, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP will still be left with a comfortable majority of 356 seats.
The AKP has in recent months lost blood with the resignations of 13 lawmakers, mostly centre-right politicians lured to the party ahead of the November 2002 elections which brought Erdogan to power.
Erdogan and aides say their government is not threatened by the resignations, but analysts have questioned whether the defections have eroded the party's claim to being a mainstream center-right force.
04/19/2005 11:57 GMT